Life in Tee Harbor, Alaska

Fruit and Berries for Southeast Alaska

As if my spring fever weren't strong enough...  :o)   I went to a seminar today at the Home and Garden Show in town about Fruit and Berries for Southeast Alaska.  I'm sure every place has its challenging growing conditions - here in Juneau we have cool, wet summers.  It was exciting for me to hear that it is possible to grow fruit trees here - and actually get good fruit!!  The guy has grown apples, cherries, hardy kiwis, pears, plums and lot of different berries.  Out of those the apples do the best, then the sour cherries. 

He said it is best to get bareroot apple trees which will adapt to their home best.  Carefully choose where you will put your trees - where they will be well drained and get the most sun (when it does sunshine!).  Dig a large hole for them - add some lime.  Use a tree wrap to protect the trunk and stake them for the first couple years.  Water in well and use seaweed as a mulch around the tree.  Do not fertilize for the first year.  As far as which kinds to choose, make sure they are early ripening and scab resistant.  Yellow Transparent, Discovery, William's Pride, Pristine, Geneva Earl were some he recommends on semi-dwarf M-7 rootstock.  

Strawberries should be planted in a raised bed to help with drainage.  Should be planted in full sun and sandy soil.  Don't fertilize too much or you will just get big leaves, but few berries until the plants use up the fertilizer.  He said just a little bit of seaweed or compost is enough.

Rhubarb grows well around here - it is a heavy feeder.  It should have two buckets of horse manure (or steer, chicken, etc.) in the fall and two buckets in the spring.  If the stalks are skinny, then you know it needs to be divided.  There are many varieties and they have a range of flavors.

Red currents do very well here and they are easy to propagate.  Just cut a one foot piece off of your plant and stick it into damp soil and it will root, almost as easy as willow.

Highbush cranberries which are wild are good for making jelly or ketchup.  As with many berries, their flavor is improved with cooking.

Raspberries do well in raised beds like strawberries, but with more organic matter as they need the moisture.  If you want to start a patch, it is best to get a start from a neighbor.

The pie cherry variety that does the best here was brought to Southeast in the early 1900's to the Sitka Research Station.  It is known as the Telephone Hill Cherry and if you are lucky, you can get a sucker from someone downtown or in Douglas.  Another that does well is Montmorency - this is the kind I have, but it hasn't produced fruit yet...

So now I am dreaming of where on the property would be the best place for some apple trees and maybe another cherry tree.  And I should plant raspberries around the chicken run...so many plans, so short of a summer!!!

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4:03 AM, Sunday, March 2, 2008 .. Posted by morningsunshine

surely if you guys can grow kiwi in ALASKA, I can grow one in Utah, right? I need to check it out!

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5:33 AM, Sunday, March 2, 2008 .. Posted by haflinger

Good morning it all sounds good but what about the wild life that will eat the small trees then the fruit..We always fighting the wild life here in Maine on grapes/apples/blueberries...
BLessings
Sister Brenda

Hi Brenda - Good point. Here our main pests are porcupines - which we don't have at our place - and bears - which we do get. His suggestion was an electric fence for the bears - one strand at about one foot and another at two and a half feet - right at nose level. Its the only thing that works. He said there are solar units if you don't have ready access to electricity - I'll have to check that out.
~ Michelle

Edited by mdonohue on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 11:12 AM

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2:53 PM, Tuesday, March 4, 2008 .. Posted by CitySteader

I've heard that blueberries grow incredibly well in Alaska due to the more acidic soil. Our soil around hear is about as alkaline as Draino, and that is from the mouth of a man at our local garden shop!!! My blueberry bush is in a pot ;-)